Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) Price Target Cut to $159.00 by Analysts at Robert W. Baird

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) had its price objective decreased by Robert W. Baird from $161.00 to $159.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the medical research company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on A. Bank of America decreased their target price on Agilent Technologies from $153.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Barclays raised Agilent Technologies from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Agilent Technologies has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $146.15.

Agilent Technologies Stock Performance

NYSE:A opened at $127.07 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $36.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $140.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $139.20. Agilent Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $124.16 and a fifty-two week high of $155.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The medical research company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.04. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.58% and a net margin of 19.27%. The business had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Analysts expect that Agilent Technologies will post 5.56 EPS for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.248 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Agilent Technologies

In other news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,911 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $286,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,947,800. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Institutional Trading of Agilent Technologies

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of A. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,976,905 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $442,011,000 after buying an additional 183,716 shares during the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies during the third quarter valued at approximately $14,848,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 30,978 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,592,000 after purchasing an additional 7,111 shares during the period. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC now owns 42,587 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,721,000 after purchasing an additional 4,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 702,631 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $104,327,000 after purchasing an additional 68,670 shares during the last quarter.

Agilent Technologies Company Profile

Agilent Technologies, Inc provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems; gas chromatography systems and components; gas chromatography mass spectrometry systems; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry instruments; atomic absorption instruments; microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometry instruments; inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry instruments; raman spectroscopy; cell analysis plate based assays; flow cytometer; real-time cell analyzer; cell imaging systems; microplate reader; laboratory software; information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; and vacuum pumps, and measurement technologies.